{"id":27425,"date":"2025-01-13T08:00:26","date_gmt":"2025-01-13T08:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/progyny.com\/?post_type=podcast&#038;p=27425"},"modified":"2025-01-10T16:15:03","modified_gmt":"2025-01-10T16:15:03","slug":"episode-199","status":"publish","type":"podcast","link":"https:\/\/progyny.com\/education\/podcast\/episode-199\/","title":{"rendered":"Episode 199: Food and Lifestyle to Fertility: Ashley\u2019s Egg Freezing Journey"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"template":"","categories":[246],"tags":[213,357,454,480],"class_list":["post-27425","podcast","type-podcast","status-publish","hentry","category-egg-freezing","tag-fertility-benefits","tag-fertility-preservation","tag-member-story","tag-need-for-employer-sponsored-fertility-benefit"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Episode 199: Food and Lifestyle to Fertility: Ashley\u2019s Egg Freezing Journey | 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shares her egg freezing journey","episode_intro_guest":"Ashley Chukwu, MPH","episode_intro_company":"Progyny member","episode_banner_section_intro_text":"This is Infertility is a bi-weekly podcast where we fuse narrative storytelling with experience and science to give you a new perspective on what it\u2019s really like to go through a family building journey. Each episode dives into the emotional, physical, and financial burdens carried by those who experience infertility on their path to parenthood. Be it IVF, IUI, egg freezing, surrogacy, adoption, etc., the path is never the same and it can be long, painful, and lonely. It\u2019s our mission to give those struggling a platform to be heard, a community connection, and an opportunity to raise awareness of the 1 in 6 who, for many reasons, struggle with infertility.","episode_page_title":"Episode 199: Food and Lifestyle to Fertility: Ashley\u2019s Egg Freezing Journey","episode_embed_code":"<iframe style=\"border: none;\" title=\"Embed Player\" src=\"https:\/\/play.libsyn.com\/embed\/episode\/id\/34779940\/height\/128\/theme\/modern\/size\/standard\/thumbnail\/yes\/custom-color\/ffffff\/time-start\/00:00:00\/playlist-height\/200\/direction\/backward\/download\/yes\/stats-code\/landing199\/font-color\/000000\" width=\"100%\" height=\"128\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe>","episode_details":"<span data-contrast=\"auto\">Ashley Chukwu is a 30-year-old food and wine blogger in Atlanta, living her life without the prospect of building a family soon. So, when her mom suggested she consider freezing her eggs, Ashley decided to do some research. At the time, she knew little about the process or whether her insurance would cover it. That\u2019s when she discovered her employer offered fertility preservation through Progyny.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span data-contrast=\"auto\">In this episode, Ashley shares her journey\u2014from researching the process and navigating her benefits to handling injections and undergoing the procedure. She discusses challenges along the way, the importance of representation,\u00a0and reflects on the peace of mind she\u2019s gained from taking control of her fertility.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span data-contrast=\"auto\">Tune in to hear Ashley\u2019s experience and learn how support from her company helped her make a decision that aligns with her goals and lifestyle.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<b><span data-contrast=\"none\">Guest: <\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"none\">Ashley Chukwu, MPH, Progyny Member<\/span>\r\n\r\n<b><span data-contrast=\"none\">Host: <\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"none\">Dan Bulger, Progyny<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span data-contrast=\"none\">For more information, visit Progyny\u2019s Podcast page and <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.progyny.com\/education\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">Progyny\u2019s Education page<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"none\"> for more resources. Be sure to follow us on Instagram, @ThisisInfertilityPodcast and use the #ThisisInfertility. Have a question, comment, or want to share your story? Email us at <\/span><a href=\"mailto:thisisinfertility@progyny.com.%E2%80%AF\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">thisisinfertility@progyny.com.<\/span><\/a>\r\n\r\nThis podcast is also available as a video: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=C97dXRm_bv0\">YouTube<\/a>\r\n\r\n<span data-contrast=\"none\">Here are some highlights from this episode:<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><b>Deciding to Freeze Her Eggs\r\n<\/b><\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">02:17 \u2013 05:52<\/span>\r\n<div style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">\r\n\r\n<b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Ashley Chukwu:<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> My mom called me one day, I think I was like, 28 and she was like, one of the Kardashians froze their eggs. You should do it. Normally the things my mom says are kind of off the wall crazy. But I was like, okay, that's actually a good idea. And then when I took a deeper dive at like, some of the benefits that my job offered. Honestly, I just thought that some of my insurance coverage would kind of take care of some of it. But then I noticed that we have Progyny, and I was like, this could actually work.<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">I knew literally nothing. I just knew that if I froze my eggs, my eggs would be just as good as the age that I froze them and I knew that within the next year or two, I did not plan on having any children, but I wanted children in the future. Kind of like a backup plan, and it's still going to be a backup plan, even if I happen to have a natural pregnancy the first time, I still want to keep them just in case. It's my kind of like, my forever backup plan.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span data-contrast=\"auto\">My first step was calling Progyny to make sure that I actually did have the benefit. Even before I registered, they gave me so much information, before I was even officially a member, they were super helpful. So, after I got registered and I had a PCA, I had a chat with her, and from there, I was like, so how do I find a doctor? And they gave me a list of doctors that were local to me, and I did my research on all the providers, and I found one that I just felt like, this is the person.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><b>The Process and Procedure\r\n<\/b><\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">07:01 \u2013 11:08<\/span>\r\n<div style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">\r\n\r\n<b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Ashley Chukwu:<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> The injections, you are actually mixing some of the injections yourself. So you have to take it in a three-hour span. So that means first in the morning, I'm in my kitchen, mixing ingredients like a chemist, like, making sure I do this correctly. I'm still kind of sleepy. I'm having coffee, and then you give yourself an injection, and you're giving yourself injections twice to three times per day, and it kind of hurts. But what I found very helpful was I would ice it. I would ice my injection area, and then I would clean it, and then I would give myself the injection, which helped tremendously. And the needles are super thin. They're super tiny. It's literally a mind over matter.<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The day came where the procedure was gonna happen. When you're on injections, you feel bloated and just uncomfortable, a lot of discomfort. And I\u2019m just like, I wanna get these eggs out. So, they call me, like, you can go ahead and take your trigger shot and we'll see you in a day or so. I was ecstatic. Then, in the procedure room, and I was kind of freaking out, but it was, it was great.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<b><span data-contrast=\"auto\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Gratitude, Advocacy, and Peace of Mind<\/span>\r\n<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">11:39 \u2013 15:33<\/span>\r\n<div style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">\r\n\r\n<b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Ashley Chukwu:<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> I feel like I don't have to worry about my biological clock. When I started the process, I thought about it like when I was 28 and I kind of reached out when I turned 29 but I didn't actually freeze my eggs until I was 30 because this is a long process of finding the doctor and all that fun stuff. So, when I first started the process, I was dating someone, but I didn't know how serious it was going to be, and then we ended up breaking up before I even started to freeze my eggs. So that was a reassuring moment for me. Like, this is definitely what you need to do. You can't wait for the perfect person, and you don't want to settle for someone. So now it's peace of mind. I love traveling, I have my blog, I'm very busy, and I don't have to think about that anymore. It's like, once I'm ready and I have a partner that I feel like, hey, this person I want to spend my life with, then I'll take the eggs off ice. But I don't feel like I'm being rushed to have a kid or anything like that.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Dan Bulger: <\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Earlier, we shared that Ashley has a wine and food blog and a strong presence on social media as well, and she decided to leverage that platform and use it to help her share her experiences with others.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span data-contrast=\"auto\">I honestly just wanted to be candid. I didn't know any black women at this age that were freezing their eggs. So, I wanted to share with the world, and I got some good feedback, so that was good, but I just wanted to let people know that it's possible, it's doable, and we black women can do it as well.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Ashley Chukwu:<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> This has made me love my current company a lot more. I cannot envision going to a different company because I'm afraid that this benefit would not be offered. I feel like it's been super helpful with my journey, and I can focus more on working and just being an individual person, without having to think about the ticking time clock that is my biological clock. It's given me peace of mind. I don't know what I would do or how I would afford or be in a position to freeze my eggs if it wasn't for Progyny. And I've also started to talk about Progyny amongst my other coworkers that didn't know that we have this benefit available. So, I really feel like it makes my company stand out, and it is a perk that I absolutely love. It's a great benefit. Never get rid of it.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<\/div>","episode_host_image":22673,"episode_host_title":"Dan Bulger, Producer at Progyny","episode_host_bio":"Dan has been in the healthcare industry for the past ten plus years as a multimedia content producer. Better known as \u2018Video Dan\u2019 he has interviewed numerous doctors, patients and other experts in the world of fertility. He\u2019s also the producer for this podcast, This is Infertility and the producer behind the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/progyny\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-uw-rm-brl=\"exc\" aria-label=\"Progyny YouTube Channel - opens in new tab\" data-uw-rm-ext-link=\"na\">\u00a0Progyny YouTube Channel<\/a>\u00a0which features interviews with dozens of the nation\u2019s leading fertility specialists. On a personal note Dan\u2019s parents started fostering kids when he was four years old, and he considers himself a proud older brother to over 100 foster children.","episode_guest_1_image":27426,"episode_guest_1_title":"Ashley Chukwu, MPH, Progyny member","episode_guest_1_bio":"Ashley is a dedicated public health professional passionate about spreading reproductive health awareness, especially within the African American community. Beyond her professional pursuits, Ashley is a creative soul who enjoys expressing herself through culinary adventures, wine exploration, and candidly sharing her personal experiences, including her journey with elective egg freezing. She actively engages with her online community, offering insights and support. 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